Posted - 02/13/2013 : 04:33:38 AM Well here we go:So far we know the following:USA sweater/ Australia JumperUSA Comforter/ Aust. Doona / NZ & UK DuvetUSA yarn/ Aust. woolUSA Trailer/ Aust. CaravanOK in Australia a trailer is a small box shaped thing that you hook on to the back of the car to go camping or take the rubbish to the tip or whatever. It is for carting stuff around that will not fit in the boot of the car.Oh Oh ! I think that is another one. We call it the boot, you call it the trunkAlso the thing you call a thong is called a "G String" in Oz.Here a thong is a thing you wear on your foot. Actually you wear a pair of thongs. Plastic/rubber sole with a piece coming up between your big toe and the second toe and going out around the front part of the foot. I think somewhere they are called flip flops. USA? NZ? This one has been known to cause a lot of embarrassing confusion.An 80 year old friend of my sister bought a G string and complained that it was the most uncomfortable thing she had ever worn. I do not know how my sister worked it out. I blush to think, but she discovered that the poor dear was wearing it back to front.Now what does all that have to do with knitting? Well I guess someone might say they have decided to knit a thong and you will think of a G String and I will think of something to go on the feet.Or somebody might have to cart their stash around in a trailer???

I knit a hug into every stitch

20 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First)

Mommyo

Posted - 11/21/2013 : 05:18:57 AM Anna,I remember Zori's , when I was small,but by the time I reached high school they were thongs and by college they were flip flops. I love the word Zori's it brings back memories of Cape Cod and being little.

- Kathy in Boston.

Margie

Posted - 11/20/2013 : 7:39:43 PM Regional speech can happen in one's own country. When I went from one coast to the other as a teen I didn't understand the slang.

"That's bad" meant that's gooood! I took it literally. I'm sure there were others but that's the only one I can conjure up.

At high school after the move I met Sloppy Joes for the first time. Lunch made of cut meat, gravy, served between a good hunk of bread. Not slices of bread from a loaf as I'd make at home, but what's called, for some reason in the USA French bread.

I love language. The street I live on now must have ten different languages represented. Great fun.

Margie

Margie and Mimi (my hearing dog who doesn't knit -- yet)

jtamsn

Posted - 05/02/2013 : 12:12:18 PM I'm with Jan on the tomato-based sauce in sloppy joes. Actually I usually buy Manwich sauce in a can then we call our sloppy joes, manwichs. Sometimes in northeastern Massachusetts soda is also called tonic.judy

hillstreetmama

Posted - 05/02/2013 : 04:33:03 AM My sloppy joes usually have a tomato based sauce, but everyone makes them a little differently. I have a recipe for Taverns that are actually made a little differently - more like Cincinatti Chili, where the meat is cooked with some water, which is eventually all cooked away. It leaves the meat in very fine crumbles.

Jan

Munchkn

Posted - 04/18/2013 : 3:14:52 PM Those of us in the US that own MINI Coopers call the trunk the boot and the hood the bonnet. Geez, I've said bonnet so long I had to think about what the usual US term is for that part of the car. Btw, the bonnet latch on my MINI is on the right side as befits its English heritage.

The corner diagonally across the street is called catty-corner, kitty-corner or cater-corner. I have usually heard cattywampus to mean askew, but it can mean the same thing as kitty-corner.

I love regional speech. It helps enrich our lives.

I first heard of loose meat sandwiches from the Roseanne TV show. I learned later that was a regional term for Sloppy Joes.

robinstephanie

Posted - 04/17/2013 : 08:03:52 AM We have pedestrian scrambles in San Francisco, so I bet they are in other parts of the country, too. A cross-cultural word!

Robinsteph

Different is good. ~Matthew Hoover

lucybug

Posted - 04/16/2013 : 07:57:42 AM I'll answer the sloppy joe question as it is a favorite on cold, snowy days (which today is). We make them with ground meat -- brown it then add a can of french onion soup and about 2T of flour to thicken the sauce. Serve it on hamburger rolls with a slice of cheese if you prefer. I always wondered if it is the same as a loose meat sandwhich.

Posted - 04/15/2013 : 10:13:53 AM So Jan, what ARE "Sloppy Joes" Here they are a loose sweater made of polar fleece so you wear them, you don't eat them. A Tavern is a place where you go and buy a drink of beer or maybe stay the night but I think it might be more of a UK word. Loose meats means nothing in particular here. If you said you had some loose meats someone might think you had not wrapped up your chops properly. Yum Yums are a Chinese food.

I knit a hug into every stitch

Grand-moogi

Posted - 04/15/2013 : 10:09:03 AM I do not know of a word that means across the intersection at a diagonal but in some towns at stop lights,for example, in Wagga Wagga, they stop cars from all directions at once and you can walk across to either side or across the middle. That is called "Scramble"

I knit a hug into every stitch

hillstreetmama

Posted - 04/14/2013 : 12:34:32 PM In my few moves around the country, I've seen a few differences. Pop vs soda is a big one, and in parts of the south, it's "Coke", no matter what flavor/brand it really is.

I grew up eating Sloppy Joe's, then moved to Iowa where they served Taverns, or Loose Meats. When I moved to my current home, I was suprprised to see Yum-Yums listed on a menu. I couldn't understand why they were talking baby talk!

What is the word YOU use that means "across the intersection at a diagonal"? I say catty-corner, but have heard "kitty-corner(ed)"and also "catty/kitty-waumpus". (Not sure what a waumpus is...)

BTW, I still wear "thongs" on my feet, and use "cream rinse" in my hair. I guess it shows my age.

Rose, I'm not sure what kind of "jelly" you eat, but our jelly is clear and spread on toast, but if it has bits of fruit in it, then it's jam, and we spread it on toast, too. And for the bathroom, my very strict 5th grade teacher taught us to say lavatory, and it stuck!

Jan

ozknitter

Posted - 04/13/2013 : 10:32:53 AM Hi,

In the US you say your going to the bathroom, we go to the dunny and use the bathroom to have a shower.

Also you call jam, jelly, when we have jelly its in a dessert.

Knit in peace and harmony

Rose

robinstephanie

Posted - 03/16/2013 : 10:59:36 AM hee hee heeeeee!

Robinsteph

Different is good. ~Matthew Hoover

Grand-moogi

Posted - 03/15/2013 : 02:23:29 AM I am just in the process of being appointed to a board of directors of a public company here in Australia that is the legal structure for SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) There is a heck of a lot of work to do so I will note it on my to do list for three years time when my term on the board is up. (And hopefully you will have forgotten about it by then).

I knit a hug into every stitch

robinstephanie

Posted - 03/14/2013 : 08:51:12 AM

quote:You know it is probably high time some bright spark wrote a real dictionary translating words from US english to Uk english, Australian english, New Zealand and possibly african english.You know how we can buy for example a french/english dictionary and one half is french to english and the other half is english to french? well we could buy a US /UK dictionary and one half could be US to UK and other half would be UK to US. Of course I would need the Us/Oz versions.

You are brilliant, Grand-Moogi. When are you starting?

Robinsteph

Different is good. ~Matthew Hoover

Grand-moogi

Posted - 03/14/2013 : 03:54:08 AM Oh and Eldergirl, I am so glad you have a new computer. It was apparently just in the knick of time.

I knit a hug into every stitch

Grand-moogi

Posted - 03/14/2013 : 03:52:39 AM You know it is probably high time some bright spark wrote a real dictionary translating words from US english to Uk english, Australian english, New Zealand and possibly african english.You know how we can buy for example a french/english dictionary and one half is french to english and the other half is english to french? well we could buy a US /UK dictionary and one half could be US to UK and other half would be UK to US. Of course I would need the Us/Oz versions.

Posted - 03/04/2013 : 08:43:28 AM Anna - I do remember the Japanese zoris when we were on Guam - but I didn't remember they were also called zoris. They did look very difficult to walk in. Our zoris were very cheap rubber thongs. I think the socks you wear under the Japanese style were called tabbies (sp?) -- but it's been so long since I even thought about them I'm probably wrong.

Pam in the Colorado mountains

ikkivan

Posted - 03/02/2013 : 08:44:19 AM When eating out in a restaurant (here in America), I have always been served the salad first. However, at our home table we have our salad WITH our meal.

My brother, who travels to Europe frequently, also has mentioned having the salad served after the main course.

Donna, with intentions always bigger than her available time. (OkieDokieKnitter on Ravelry)